Heating apparatus.



L. L. LEWIS.

HEATING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 6, 190a.

Patented Dec. 8, 1908.

WITNESSES 03%. m w/wfiv NTTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HEATING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 8, 1908.

Application filed June 6, 1908. Serial No. 437,175.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Lns'rnn L. Lnwrs, a citizen of the United States, residin at Oil City, in the county of Venango and tate of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Heating Apparatus; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact descri tion of the invention, such as will enable ot ers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to improvements in heating ap aratus, adapted particularly to increasing t e efliciency of combustion of fuel.

The object in view is the agitation of air in its circulation past the points of combustion for rendering the combustion substantially perfect.

A further object in view is the control of the combustion proportionate to the relative amount of heat being supplied.

The invention comprises certain novel constructions, combinations and arrangements of parts as will be hereinafter fully described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawing :Figure 1 is a view in front elevation of a furnace embodying the features of the present invention. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal, vertical, central section therethrough, parts being seen in elevation. Fig. 3 is an enlarged, detail, longitudinal, vertical, central section taken through the transmission gear of the driving shaft. Fig. 4 is a horizontal section taken therethrough on the plane indicated by line 4, 4 of Fig. 3, and looking downwardly.

Referring to the drawing by numerals, 1 indicates any suitable open-ended casing or combustion chamber mounted on supports or legs 2 in any preferred manner, and carrying at its upper end a drum or distribution chamber 3 with the interior of which the casing communicates. Intermediate the length of the chamber 1 is arranged a burner 4 which may be a grate for receiving any fuel for supporting combustion, but which is preferably a burner for gaseous fuel. The burner 4 is provided with a preferably, relatively large central opening for permitting free circulation of air and a shaft 5 extends longitudinally centrally of the chamber 1 through the opening and rests at its lower end on a shaft 6. The shaft 5 extends upwardly through the chamber 3 and through a guiding journal bearing 7 at its upper end,

said journal bearing being of any preferred form and sustained by suitable brackets 7, 7 The shaft 5 is provided within the chamber 3 with any preferred number of motor wheels 8, each of which is preferably provided with a comparatively large number of blades, and each of the blades is constructed of relatively heavy material for causing each of the wheels 8 to have sufficient weight to act substantially as fly wheels in addition to operating as a motor wheel. The shaft 6 is stepped at its lower end into any suitable bearing formed in a transverse rod 9 fixed to some of the legs 2 in any referred manner. The upper end of the s raft 6 is retained in alinement by being extended through a bearing formed in a cross bar 10 of any preferred type fixed in any suitable manner to the walls of chamber 1 just beneath the upper end of the shaft 6. The shafts 5 and 6 are connected by differential gear for transmitting movement from the shaft 5 to the shaft 6 at an increased speed, and by preference such differential gear consists of an internally toothed gear wheel 11 meshing with an idler pinion 12 journaled on stub shaft 13 fixed to the bar 10 and meshing with gear wheel 14 fixed to the shaft 6. The gear wheel 11 is provided with a sleeve 15 which surrounds the lower end of the shaft 5 and up er end of the shaft 6, and is preferably detac ably fixed to the shaft 5 by a set screw 16, or in any other preferred manner. By this form of differential gear, the speed of shaft 6 will very materially exceed the speed of shaft 5, and at the same time the shafts 5 and 6 are in axial alinement. The shaft 6, at a suitable point below the burner 4 and preferably relatively near the same, carries a fan 17 having, by preference, blades of comparatively high pitch for delivering as great volume of air as practicable.

It is to be noted that the lower end of the chamber 1 is entirely open, and near the lower end the chamber is preferably formed with a series of openings 20, 20, the upper end being also entirely open, so that a free passage for air is provided, and the top of the distribution chamber 3 is penetrated by any desirable number of conveyor pipes 18, 18 after the usual manner of a furnace for delivering the heated air to various rooms or other points for utilization. Each of the pipes 18 is provided with the usual valve 19 for controlling the distribution of air therethrough, and of course for ordinary house use the usual register will be provided at the terminus of each pipe.

In operation, assuming gaseous fuel to be used, the fuel is supplied through pipe 4 provided with the usual air mixer 1", which delivers the fuel into the burner 4 from whence the same is discharged for sustaining combustion, and as the combustion continues the heat products rising through the chamber 1 enter the distribution chamber 3 and passing out through the several pipes 18 pass the motor wheels 8, and in passing revolve the same. The wheels 8, of course, begin to revolve comparatively slowly, and as the heat continues and the velocity of upward flow of the heated air becomes greater, the wheels 8 revolve more and more rapidly until they reach their maximum speed, and in the meantime the revolution of shaft 6 will be considerably more rapid than the revolution of the shaft 5, so that the fan 17 begins almost at once to act upon the air being delivered to the burner, and as the movement of the wheels 8 becomes more rapid the fan 17 acts more rapidly, and the combustion of the gaseous fuel is rendered more nearly perfect. In fact, I have found in practice that the combustion is so nearly perfect that the air which is not consumed, but is delivered up through the drum to the several points for distribution, is perfectly clean and wholesome, and does not contain either an excess of moisture or an appreciable amount of products of combustion, so that the thus heated air may be delivered and utilized in the several rooms of a house without the delivery of any odor or the occasioning of any objection to the nature of the air supplied.

It is obvious of course that with the increase in the efficiency of combustion, the amount of air moving past the points of combustion will naturally be increased over the amount of air moving past such points when the combustion is less perfect, and as the increase in efiiciency of combustion by the employment of the present invention over the combustion in the absence thereof has been repeatedly demonstrated by me, I conclude that the amount of air delivered past the burner by natural draft with the invention applied considerably exceeds the amount of air which would be delivered to the burner 4 in the absence of the invention, and in actual practice I have found that the use of the rapidly moving fan 17 eliminates the objectionable feature in the burning of natural gas of moisture deposits on the walls of the rooms being heated, which otherwise occur from the burning of natural gas unless a chimney or flue is provided. The necessity for a chimney is obviated in the present improved structure.

It will be observed that the motor wheels 8 will revolve at a speed in a fixed ratio to the upward pressure of the rising products and such upward pressure will bear a given relation to the amount ofdischargc area represented by the piping 18, so that when any of the valves 19 are closed or the registers of the heating system are closed, the proportionate reduction in the amount of air discharged will occasion a proportionate decrease in the speed of revolution of the wheels 8 and a consequent reduction in the amount of air supplied and the resultant combustion will correspondingly decrease of course, and an increase in the outlet for the rising products will increase the movement of the motor wheels, and a consequent increase in the supply of air and caloric value of combustion will follow, so that the amount of heat supplied may readily be regulated.

In the practical tests which I have made, I find that by the utilization of the fan 17 connected with the motors 8, the combustion is so nearly perfect that the manifestation of the caloric value of a given fuel is increased from twenty to thirty per cent., or in other words from twenty to thirty per cent. less fuel is required for heating a given area to a predetermined degree for a stated time than required whenthe air delivering fan with the motors 8 is eliminated.

In contemplating the present invention as means for affording more elficient combustion, the motor wheels 8 may be looked upon as fans or agitators, and such fans and the fan 17 and connections afford intertransmission of power for breaking up the otherwise natural air currents and thus producing more complete combustion than would occur in the presence merely of such natural air currents.

What I claim is 1. The combination of a combustion chamber, a distribution chamber in communication therewith, and formed with a plurality of outlets, a gas burner situated within the combustion chamber and formed to offer but little resistance to the flow of gases through said combustion chamber, an agitator fan situated immediately below said burner, an agitator fan situated immediately below the outlets of said distributing chamber, and means operatively connecting said fans.

2. The combination of a combustion chamber, a distribution chamber in communication therewith and formed with an outlet, a gas burner situated within the combustion chamber and formed to offer but little resistance to the flow of gases through said combustion chamber, a rotary agitator fan situated immediately below said burner, a rotary agitator fan situated immediately below the outlet and of different diameter from that of the first-mentioned fan, and means operatively connecting said fans in such manner as to cause one of the fans to rotate faster than the other.

3. The combination of a combustion chamber, a distribution chamber in communication therewith and of larger cross-sectional area than the combustion chamber, the distribution chamber being formed with an outlet, a fluid fuel burner situated within the combustion chamber and formed to offer but little resistance to the flow of gases through said combustion chamber, a rotary agitator fan situated immediately below the burner, a larger, rotary agitator fan situated in the distribution chamber in the line of travel of gases from the combustion chamber to the outlet of the distribution chamber, and

means operatively connecting said fans in 15 LESTER L. LEWIS.

WVitnesses R. M. PARKER, O. H. FESLER. 

